OTTAWA (JTA) — A Barbados man charged with murdering the president of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO has pleaded guilty to robbing five tourists.
Curtis Joel Foster must still appear in court to face murder charges in the death of Terry Schwarzfeld, the Hadassah official, during a February vacation in the Caribbean nation. Schwarzfeld, 60, and her daughter-in-law were attacked while they walked on an isolated stretch of beach. The assailant knocked both women unconscious with a piece of wood. Schwarzfeld never regained consciousness and was airlifted to a hospital in Ottawa, where she died March 18.
Foster, 24, was sentenced Thursday to two years in jail after he admitted robbing tourists, including a pair from Canada in August. He has also been charged in the July 2008 rape of a German tourist.
The assistant superintendent of the Royal Barbados Police Force was slated to arrive in Ottawa and will meet with Schwarzfeld’s family so they can identify items belonging to her recovered from Foster when he was arrested.
More than 800 people attended Schwarzfeld’s funeral on March 20. Canadian Hadassah-WIZO has honored their slain president by naming the Terry Schwarzfeld Ottawa Daycare Centre in Akko, Israel in her memory.
